1953 – The FEI asked Badminton to host the first European Eventing Championships. Six nations (Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, France, Sweden and Netherlands) sent riders, but the April date was deemed too early for Continental teams to get horses fit and only the British team completed, with Britain’s Major Laurence Rook, riding Starlight XV, the first individual European Champion.
1957 – Women were not allowed to ride on Olympic teams until 1964, but Sheila Willcox became the first female individual champion; the ratio of female to male winners now stands at 19-17.
1959 – Capt Hans Schwarzenbach became the first rider from Continental Europe to win the title, on Burn Trout.
1962 – Burghley (GBR) hosted the first of its six European Championships. The Russian horses had travelled by lorry from Moscow, but made a remarkable recovery to beat Ireland by a comfortable margin.
1967 – Reverse-order show jumping was tried for the first time, at Punchestown, where Major Eddy Boylan riding Durlas Eile became Ireland’s first individual gold medallist.
1971 – Princess Anne, now the Princess Royal, became the first member of a royal family to win the individual title; her daughter, Zara Phillips (now Tindall) achieved the same feat 34 years later, at Blenheim.
1973 – The Princess fell, as did several other riders, at the notorious second cross-country fence, a vast oxer over a yawning ditch, at Kiev, then in the USSR. Britain’s Janet Hodgson, who suffered two falls on the course, was given a bravery award by the Russians for continuing despite her facial injuries. The winning German team included Horst Karsten, who competed at nine European championships in total, and Herbert Blocker, eight.
1977 – Lucinda Prior-Palmer (now Green) became the first rider to defend her title successfully, riding George at Burghley.
1979 – Ireland won their only team gold medal so far, the quartet including John Watson, whose son Sam now regularly represents Ireland; Nils Haagenson became the only Dane to have won the individual title.
1981 – Haagenson’s win gave Denmark the right to stage their only senior European championships, at Horsens. The Swedes won their first title, the team including Yogi Briesner, later Britain’s long-time team manager.
1989 – Ginny Leng (now Elliot) became the first rider to win three consecutive European titles, taking dual gold at Burghley on Master Craftsman.
1991 – Punchestown, Ian Stark, a mainstay of the British team, won his first individual gold, on Glenburnie, and headed a second consecutive British sweep of the individual medals. Such was the influence of designer Tommy Brennan’s cross-country course that Karen Straker (now Dixon) was able to win an individual bronze despite a cross-country run-out, an unusual statistic in modern-day eventing.
1993 – Ginny Leng’s chances of a record fourth gold evaporated when her Welton Houdini spooked at a steeplechase fence in Achselschwang (GER); the British team also failed to complete, for the first time, and France won a first individual title, for Jean-Lou Bigot. Eddy Stibbe won his first individual medal, bronze, for the Netherlands.
1995 – The Pratoni del Vivaro (ITA) Europeans were open to the world and were down-graded from CCI4* (the equivalent of today’s 5*) to 3* (now 4*). Confusion was avoided when the gold medals were won outright by Europeans (Britain and Lucy Thompson, who had recently switched to Irish nationality), but the New Zealanders, mostly riding young horses, finished second.
1997 – Another Open Europeans, at Burghley, where Mark Todd won overall, the closest he came to an individual world title, with Bettina Hoy becoming Germany’s first European champion.
1999 – Pippa Funnell, who had won the Young Rider title in 1987, waited a long time to feature in a senior British team, but her debut was a triumph when she won double gold at Luhmuhlen (GER).
2001 – At Pau (FRA), Pippa became the first rider to win back-to-back titles on the same horse.
2003 – The European championships at Punchestown were the last to be held in traditional long format with steeplechase and roads-and-tracks phases.
2005 – the first of the European championships in the format used today were awarded to Blenheim; a home victory for the Queen’s granddaughter, Zara Phillips (now Tindall) riding Toytown, made headlines.
2007 – The talented French rider Nicolas Touzaint and his striking grey Galan de Sauvagere, won their second European title, at Pratoni del Vivaro.
2009 – Kristina Cook, a stalwart of the British team, became the first mother to win the individual title, on Miners Frolic, at Fontainebleau in France. Overall, it was not a great weekend for the German team, but in a sign of great things to come, Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam won the first of many accolades, individual bronze.
2011 – Germany’s run of world domination began with a European team gold for the first time since 1973 and, on home ground at Luhmuhlen, made a clean sweep of all three individual medals, with victory for the reigning world champions, Jung and La Biosthetique Sam.
2015 – Germany scored a third successive European team gold and a third title for Jung, this time riding the young stallion FischerTakinou through the mud and rain at Blair Castle in Scotland, where the Queen arrived from Balmoral to present him with his medals.
2017 – Great Britain managed to break the German run at Strzegom (POL), the first European championship in Eastern Europe since Kiev in 1973. Ingrid Klimke and Michael Jung won individual gold and silver, but the team was disqualified after a positive dope test and Sweden and Italy were promoted to silver and bronze.
2019 – Germany was back on top, again on home ground at Luhmuhlen, again with Klimke and Jung in individual gold and silver, with Klimke winning a back-to-back title on Hale Bob.
2021 – Unusually, the Europeans ran in the same year as an Olympics, postponed due to the covid pandemic. They were held in Switzerland, for the first time since Frauenfeld in 1983, and this time Britain beat Germany and took all three individual medals, with gold for Nicola Wilson and JL Dublin.
2023 – Britain was again on top at a rainsoaked Haras du Pin (FRA), with a sparkling individual victory for the Badminton winners Ros Canter and Lordships Graffalo. The squad will enjoy a home ground advantage as the championships return to Britain, at Blenheim, but there is no doubt that many other nations will be fiercely challenging their hegemony. The 37th FEI European Championships promises to be as competitive and thrilling as any other in history.
